Sean Jaquez and Ardyn Allessie Professor Dyrness Educational Studies: 200 5 May 2016 Back to the Future: 1969 Edition Introduction: This curriculum focuses on the Tinker vs. Des Moines court case of 1969. The case is revolves around three high school students that were suspended for going against the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school (“Tinker v. Des Moines”). The students asserted that the rights provided to them by the First Amendment allowed them to wear the armbands to school. Through the Supreme Court decision, the school had no dress code that did not allow armbands. Therefore, the students were protected by their rights given in the first amendment. Context: This curriculum seeks to teach all eighth grade level students on the Tinker vs. Des Moines court case of 1969. This curriculum is intended for a Hartford Magnet school. The week is structured Monday to Friday with classes of 45 minutes dedicated to the lesson. We felt that from our personal schooling experiences we were never well informed of this case that helped change the rights of students in public schools. Because of this, we want these students, who are very close in age to the students who helped make this court case happen, to recognize the importance of their individual rights. Over the course of one week we are going to not only cover the case itself, but touch on the Vietnam War that was occurring at the same time, and the Bill of Rights. 1 Objectives: Students will be able to: 1. Learn about the Bill of Rights and identify its relevance to their everyday lives. 2. Understand how the context of the Vietnam War contributed to the Tinker vs. Des Moines Case. 3. Analyze the Tinker Vs. Des Moines case of 1969 and connect it to the Bill of Rights. 4. Express their opinions about the Tinker Vs. Des Moines Case through debates. These objectives seek to follow the Connecticut State Department of Education Social Studies Standards: 1. Change, Continuity, and Context: Hist 8.1: “Analyze connections among events and developments in historical contexts” 2. Perspectives: Hist 8.3: “Analyze multiple factors that influence the perspectives of people during different historical eras.” 3. Causation and Argumentation: Hist 8.9: “Explain multiple causes and effects of events and developments in the past.” These three standards demonstrate the correlation of the Vietnam War and the case. Through examining the case and role­play, the students will be able to view a breadth of perspectives within the case. The framework used in this curriculum was Elliot Aronson’s Jigsaw Technique. This technique is where students break into small heterogeneous groups and focus on a specific topic for a certain amount of time. Once the time is over, students switch groups and explain what they learned from the previous group. This technique is effective because students communicate with each other as opposed to the teacher just lecturing the entire time. This is seen 2 through John Dewey’s Social Constructivism and Intrapersonal Intelligence from Howard Garner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, where students work in groups and find solutions to problems with each other. In addition, Bloom’s Taxonomy is a framework used as students create, evaluate, analyze, apply, understand, and remember. Activities: Monday​
: Lesson on Bill of Rights The unit will begin by teaching the eighth grade students about the Bill of Rights. The teacher will start by handing out a worksheet which simply describes what all the Bill of Right are. The class will then watch a short five minute video that explains the Bill of Rights. Then after the video is completed students will be broken up into small, heterogeneous groups where they will explain to each other what they learned from the short video.This discussion will last for ten minutes. Next, in those groups the students will receive a worksheet where there will recieve a scenario that correlates to the Bill of Rights. For example, “Carolyn is arrested for shoplifting a candy bar from a grocery store. At trial, she is found guilty. The judge decides that the right punishment is to cut off Carolyn’s hands so she will not be able to shoplift again”(Bill of Rights Institute p 21). The students will then have to find out which amendment correlated with the scenario. This scenario worksheet will take twenty minutes. For the remaining ten minutes of class the class will come together as a whole and have a discussion about the scenarios and what they learned about the Bill of Rights. Tuesday:​
Lesson on Vietnam War We are under the assumption that the students already learned about the War earlier in the year, so this is just a refresher lesson. The class will begin with a short five minute video on the draft 3 regarding the Vietnam war. Then the students will be broken up into smaller heterogenous groups where they will answer the question, “do you think the draft was taking away individual’s rights?” They will discuss this question for fifteen minutes. Then for the rest of class students will individually work on a worksheet called, “Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson.” This worksheet asks students to answer three questions. The first being if they thought the draft was taking away individual’s rights. The second being if women should have been included in the draft. The final question being if they were president during the time of the Vietnam War would they have kept the draft and/or done anything differently. If the students do not complete those questions during the rest of class they will be allowed to finish it as homework at home and return it the next day. Wednesday​
: Lesson on Tinker vs. Des Moines Class will begin with the teacher collecting the “Letter to Lyndon B. Johnson” for any of the students who did not complete it in class and brought it home for homework. Next the teacher will break the class up into three heterogeneous groups. Each group will get a different part of the article regarding the Tinker Vs. Des Moines case. The first group will get an article on the history of the case and how it arose. The second group will get an article on the court case part of the Tinker Vs. Des Moines case. The final group will get an article on the outcome of the Tinker Vs. Des Moines Case. Each group will have twenty minutes to read over their article and make sure that everyone in the group knows what their article was about. Then the class will come together as a whole again. Two students from each group will be assigned to explain to the rest of the class what their part of the article was about. Therefore, each student learns about the case thoroughly. This discussion will take place for the rest of the class period. 4 Thursday​
: Role­play preparation All of this class period will be devoted to having the students find out what characters they will be portraying for their debate the next day and actually practice being their characters. We split the students up by the following: six judges, four school administrators, eight Tinker students, and six petitioning parents. To make sure each role is evenly distributed the we will have the students randomly pick out of a hat which character they will be. This process should take about fifteen minutes. Once every student has their role they will break off into their character groups. For example, the six judges would be one group. These groups will spend about twenty minutes discussing with one another what they believe is important about their character and what they want to make sure they include in the debate. The rest of class time can either be spent working in those groups or going to other groups to see what others think they should portray their characters. Friday​
: Role­play We will give the students five minutes to practice their roles and get into character. They will present the case, which will last approximately 15­20 minutes. Once this is completed, we will have the students discuss what they learned from Monday until Friday. We will delve into how our lessons all connect with one another. For instance, how the Bill of Rights was violated in the case. Also, how the case connected to the Vietnam war and how the Vietnam war connected to the Bill of Rights lesson. The rest of class will be spent by having the students end the curriculum on a free­write or reflection. They can write about their personal experience or someone they know about their rights being violated or what they took away from this 5 curriculum. They can also brainstorm ideas on how to spread the Tinker Vs. Des Moines case to other eighth grade classrooms around America. Evaluation: Class participation plays a large role in how students are graded. They will be evaluated based on their overall participation and engagement in the classroom based on the criteria in the rubric. The rubric is grading students based on their: attendance/promptness, level of engagement in class, listening skills, behavior, and preparation. For a student to get a one hundred in participation they must get all fours on the rubric. To get all four’s a student must: always be prompt and never miss a class, actively contribute to the class by offering ideas and asking questions more than once per class, listens when others talk both in in groups and in class and incorporates or builds off of the ideas of others, never displays disruptive behavior during class, and is always prepared for class with assignments and required materials. A student will get all three’s, meaning they will receive a 75 percent if the student: is late more than once but never misses a class, actively contributes to class by offering ideas and asking questions once per class, listens when others talking both in groups and in class, rarely displays disruptive behaviour during class, and is usually prepared for class with assignments and required class materials. A student will receive all two’s, a 50 percent, if the student is: late to more than two classes and misses a class, rarely contributes to class by offering ideas and asking questions, does not listen when others talk both in groups and in class, occasionally displays disruptive behavior during class, and is rarely prepared for class with assignments and required class materials. A student will receive all one, a 25 percent, if the student: is late to all classes and misses more than once class, never contributed to class by offering ideas and asking questions, does not listen when 6 others talk both in groups and in class and student often interrupts when others speak, almost always displays disruptive behavior during class, and is almost never prepared for class with assignments and required class materials. Besides class participation, students will also be grades on multiple worksheets throughout the week. The worksheets will be graded on an assignment rubric that grades the worksheets based on completion, comprehension, accuracy, and writing quality. In order for a student to get full credit on their worksheets the work must: be completed with all parts present, demonstrates exceptional understanding of the ideas and skills required in the activity, is accurate and labeled correctly, and the writing is coherent, concise, free of spelling errors and is grammatically correct. A student will get a 75 percent if the work is: mostly complete and most elements are present, demonstrates satisfactory understanding of ideas and skills required in the activity, is accurate and mostly labeled correctly, and the writing is coherent and has minimal spelling or grammar errors. A student will receive a 50 percent if the work is: partly compete and some elements are complete, demonstrates minimal understanding of ideas and skills required by this activity, is accurate, and the writing is incoherent and has some spelling and grammar errors. A student will receive a 25 percent if the work is: not done, demonstrates no understanding of the ideas and skills required in this activity, is not accurate, and the writing is incoherent, broken, overly long, and contains many spelling and grammatical errors. References: “Strategic School Profile Data” ​
Connecticut State Department of Education​
. http://sdeportal.ct.gov/Cedar/WEB/ResearchandReports/SSPReports.aspx?type=SSP 7 (accessed May 8) “Connecticut Curricular Frameworks”. ​
Connecticut State Department of Education​
. http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2618&Q=320954&sdePNavCtr=|#45443 (accessed May 8). "Tinker V. Des Moines ­ Landmark Supreme Court Ruling on Behalf of Student Expression." American Civil Liberties Union​
. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2016. Phillips, D C, and Jonas F. Soltis. "Chapter 5­6." ​
Perspectives on Learning​
. New York: Teachers College, Columbia U, 1985. Print. James Banks, “Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform,” in ​
Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives, 5th edition​
. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2004. Resources: #1: Bill of Rights Video: ​
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUVDH­Avuig #2: Bill of Rights Article: http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/constitution_day/inside/index.asp?article=bi
llofrights #3: Scenario Worksheet: http://billofrightsinstitute.org/wp­content/uploads/2012/11/Middle­School­BOR­Lesson­with­An
swer­Key.pdf #4: Video on Vietnam War Draft: ​
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1XbciM­kss #5: Lyndon B. Johnson Worksheet: http://www.teachervision.com/tv/printables/TCR/1576901009_318­321.pdf #6: Tinker Vs. Des Moines Article: 8 https://www.aclu.org/tinker­v­des­moines­landmark­supreme­court­ruling­behalf­student­expres
sion #7: Participation Rubric: Made from scratch: file://localhost/Users/joeallessie/Desktop/Screen%20shot%202016­05­09%20at%209.36.41%20
PM.pdf #8: Assignment Rubric: http://www.excelsior.edu/static/syllabus/rubrics/SBT_Assignment_Rubric.pdf 9